Anthony Scibilia

"This semester I'm teaching two sections of Roman art and one section of Egyptian art. Music's very much involved, in the sense that I've been a pianist for more than 30 years, and a lot of what I do in the classroom ends up having a musical dimension in one way or another."

"I concentrate a lot on the piano music of Franz Liszt. There's a piece called 'Il Penseroso,' where he's looking at the Medici tomb sculptures of Michelangelo, and he appends a poem by Michelangelo. I found some very strong correspondences between the poem itself and how Liszt composed the piece. It was perfectly fair for him to take these things in and make them part of himself. I want the students to own the material for themselves. I like the fact that I can just put something out to the students and they bite; they find their own way into the material."

"I'm assuming a certain level of dedication and competence and passion on the part of the students, and I'm appreciating that very deeply. When a student has that level of depth in any one area, I find that it's very easy to give them something that isn't in their area and, very quickly, something coagulates. They build a world around it much more easily than if there aren't some simple structures in place. When you've had your own deep experience of something, you're able to say, 'I recognize that. This sounds like something that I know, but it's just being done in visual art instead of music.'"

Career Highlights

B.A., Cornell University

M.A., Columbia University

M.Phil., Columbia University

Pianist

Lectures/performances at New England Conservatory, Mass College of Art and Design, Columbia University, and CUNY Graduate Center

Recordings of Bach, Schubert, and Scarlatti

Published photographic work at the Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford University Press, CBS News, Zone Books, Gardner's Art through the Ages